


Living in different nations

by UpInOrbit



Series: Time is frozen [1]
Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Based on the music videos, F/F, Inspired by Fringe, Jinsoul is a scientist, Teleportation, Yerim too, but very loosely, eventual OT12, some only mentioned tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-06-26 08:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpInOrbit/pseuds/UpInOrbit
Summary: Jinsoul is a scientist who's trying to build a teleportation machine but, what happens when the machine finally works and she mets the blonde girl dancing at the other side?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Here I come with a new chaptered fic ^^ It's going to be pretty short, and I'll try to update it weekly, but no promises. This is going to be a weird mix between an alternate universe, a very unlikely theory, with an universe inspired by Fringe (the TV series), with elements from the MV's, so it might be confusing but I hope it isn't.  
> If this isn't the first fic of mine you've read, you might have noticed I changed my name (unwilling to be found by irl) but I won't change it again (hopefully).  
> The title is a line from 5S0S' More, a really nice song btw  
> I hope you enjoy this!

It was 6 a.m. when the incessant ringing of her phone woke Jinsoul up. Blindly, she looked for it and groaned as she turned it off, unwilling to leave the warm cocoon her duvet had formed, but she knew if she didn’t get up quickly, she’d be late to work. She rubbed her eyes and noticed her damp cheeks. The pillow was soaked as well, like she had cried herself to sleep, but she couldn’t remember that happening. She had some inkling it wasn’t the first time it had happened, waking up to tear stained cheeks and a light headache, even if she had no idea how that had happened. Unwilling to give it anymore thought, she put it down to some bad dream.

Sighing, she pushed the duvet away in order to get ready for yet another day at work. It was in moments like this in which she really wished she was rich and unbothered, but she wasn’t, so she better get going if she ever wanted to have as much money as she dreamt of. Like every other day, she made her bed, got dressed and went to the kitchen to have breakfast, heading straight for the coffee machine, for her first coffee cup of the day. She ate her food while scrolling through her Twitter and Instagram, absentmindedly giving likes to the pictures that popped up. 

She washed the dishes, brushed her teeth and by 6:45 a.m. she was heading towards her car. She watched as the streets slowly filled with people, heading to work or school, some heading back to their homes, as she sung along to _Youngblood_. When _More_ started to play, she turned it up, singing at the top of her lungs, feeling like the song was speaking directly to her. In thirty minutes she had reached her working place, and was headed to her lab.

“Good morning!”, she shouted, knowing her coworker was somewhere in the room.

“Hi, Jinsoul” was the muffled response, coming from the bathroom located at the right side of the room. “They brought something in for you”.

“Huh?”

Yerim came out from the bathroom, her long brown hair floating behind her, as Jinsoul hung her coat on the rack, and motioned towards the table Jinsoul had her back to. On top of it sat an exuberant bouquet of roses. She turned towards Yerim, her mouth hanging.

“Who brought them?”

Her friend shrugged.

“No idea. They were already here when I arrived”.

Jinsoul furrowed her brows.

“How is that even possible? You are always the first to arrive”.

“Maybe they live even further away than me and have to take an even earlier bus. I don’t know. Now go and see if it has a card or something, let’s see who send them”.

Yerim nudged her forward gently, and Jinsoul carefully looked for some type of card, which she found a few moments later, while Yerim rested her chin on her shoulder, her arms snaking around Jinsoul’s middle. She opened the envelope and took out a slip of paper, creamy and thick, clearly of high quality.

_I know it seems like this week never ends, that it constantly repeats itself and that you’re walking in circles, but know that what you do is important. You are important. I’ll always be here for you. Till the last moment, I’ll stay right by your side. We can’t be separated xO_

“Well…That was… Something” said Jinsoul.

“It was half sweet, half creepy” agreed Yerim.

“What do you think?”

Yerim picked up the card and turned it around.

“It could be some secret admirer. Or it could be someone who’s watching you and wants something from you”.

She handed back the card, leaving Jinsoul to muse over her words. 

“Either way, we have to get back to work. Are you going to write this down?”

“Maybe? It’s a bit creepy, but it’s still a bouquet, and I love flowers so…”

Jinsoul fished her notebook from the depths of her purse, started a new entry and quickly jotted down _I received roses_. 

“Have there been any changes?” she asked Yerim, who was looking at the data that had been compiled over the weekend. Yerim shot a sardonic smile at her.

“Of course. Call the TV, we’re going to be famous for inventing the first machine that allows teleportation”.

Jinsoul snorted.

“Don’t get sassy with me, a girl can hope”.

“Sadly, hoping is the only thing we can do for the moment. Nothing has changed since we started working on this, and it doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon”.

“Don’t be such a downer, we will make it” was Jinsoul’s confident answer.

“Yeah, but when? I would like this to be working before I’m old and about to die”.

“So dramatic” said Jinsoul, rolling her eyes, earning herself a laugh from Yerim.

After that, they settled in a confortable silence, the kind that is born between two people that know each other to the point in which no words are needed to communicate, only disturbed by the keyboard sounds and the constant beeping and buzzing that came from the machine. The hours passed by, the sunlight slowly filling the lab through the massive windows, as both women worked side by side, as they went through their calculations, trying to pinpoint what was that stopped the machine from working. 

Jinsoul opened one of the drawers on her table, and pulled out a stack of papers. As she went though them, one caught her attention.

“Yerim” she called out.

“Hm?”

“Yerim, stop doing whatever you are doing and come here” she urged. “Is this yours?” Her friend grabbed the paper her friend was waving around.

“No, it isn’t”. 

“Isn’t this your writing?”

Jinsoul took the paper back.

“It’s pretty similar, but it’s not mine”.

“Are you sure? Maybe you wrote it drunk” Yerim arched her brows at the suggestion, and Jinsoul sheepishly shrugged. “Maybe not drunk, but tired? No one else comes to our lab, and that writing is too neat to be mire, so it has to be yours”. 

“I’m pretty sure it isn’t mine, even if they do look similar. Anyway, what does it say?”

Jinsoul scratched her ear, nose scrunched. 

“It’s a series of calculations for the machine. I know we don’t remember writing them, but they seem correct. Maybe we could try them”.

“Try some numbers you found on a random paper that none of us remember writing? Sure, it sounds like such a good idea”.

Jinsoul rolled her eyes at the obvious sarcasm.

“Take a look at them, I don’t see anything wrong with them. The paper seems a little old, but other than that, I think it’s worth a try. I doubt it’s going to make all this blow up”.

Yerim took the paper, and they spent the next ten minutes in silence, as she went over them. After all, Yerim had always been the most cautious out of the two of them.

“Are you sure about this?” 

“Yes. No. I don’t know. But the truth is we’re stuck, Yerim” she closed her eyes briefly, sensing the beginning of a headache. She sounded tired, almost broken. “We’ve been doing this for longer than I can remember and as much as I love spending time with you, I can’t stand it anymore. I’m afraid one day they’ll realise they’re getting nowhere and kick us out. This might not be our best idea, but it’s not like we have many more options. It seems right, and I seriously don’t think it will make this explode, so yeah, I think it’s worth a shot”.

It was a few minutes before Yerim answered, voice firm.

“Okay. Let’s do this” Jinsoul straightened up.

“Are you serious?”

Yerim smiled brightly at her.

“Yes. I agree we don’t have that many choices and if we end up being wronged, well, at least it will be a change in the routine”.

They both put themselves to work, entering the data in the computer, double and triple checking everything to make sure they didn’t completely ruin their work. When they finished, the waited, expectantly, but just like every other try, they were left staring at empty space, nothing happening. Jinsoul groaned and sat back down, earning a sympathetic pat from her friend.

“Well, that was underwhelming” she clapped, suddenly. “I’m going to get us something to eat, Do you want anything specific?”

“Whatever you get will be fine as long as you bring me coffee” Jinsoul answered, moving her hand in a vague gesture.

“I’ll be back soon, don’t mop too much, love. There’s still time for us, you can still become rich and famous” she shouted, as she exited the room.

Jinsoul rested her head on the back of the chair, trying to not let the frustration overcome her. Their job was difficult, tedious to the point in which she had considered the possibility of quitting, tired of getting no visible result day after day after day. She was so far gone in her own head that she didn’t notice Yerim had come back until she heard the music. She turned around.

“Yerim, what…?” 

She didn’t get to finish her question. Yerim wasn’t there, and she wasn’t the source of the music. Instead, behind her there was a rectangle, at around a meter above the floor, that covered the space from her stomach to her head, floating just in front of her eyes. But the strangest thing wasn’t that: it was what could be seen through it, for it didn’t show the other side of the lab, but rather what seemed like a studio, and a blonde girl dancing in it, with her back turned to Jinsoul. The later couldn’t believe what she was seeing, too shocked to fully process it, but some corner of her brain was shouting at her: the portal had opened, which was one step closer to proper teleportation, and it seemed too good to be true. Suddenly, the girl twirled and locked eyes with Jinsoul, who had continued to watch in awe. The girl stumbled and fell, eyes wide in surprise and fear, and opened her mouth, probably to scream, but the only thing that came out of it was a high pitched squeak. Jinsoul lunged herself forward, almost tripping herself when trying to reach the strange window.

“Hi, hello! Please, don’t scream” she tried to shoot a reassuring smile at the girl but she looked even more scared, so Jinsoul gave up the smiling. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise”.

“What the fuck is this? Who are you? How did you get here!?” the girl’s voice was progressivelygetting higher, until she was almost screaming.

“Eh, I’m a scientist, and I was building a teleportation machine, which just worked and opened this window, but I’m not really there, I don’t even know where you are, I can only see you” the look on the girl’s face was turning from one of complete fear into one of confusion as Jinsoul spit her answers. She didn’t appear convinced. “I know this sounds crazy, but I swear it’s true. Take a look at the other side of the window, you’ll see I’m not here. There. Whatever”.

The girl stood up, slowly, and Jinsoul took in how the girl seemed to be her same height, and the way her hair, maybe a shade or two darker than her own, framed her face. Jinsoul was sure she was going to run away, but instead of doing that, she carefully proceeded to circle the window. Jinsoul waited, expectant, for the girl to reappear. When she did, she looked at Jinsoul with a mix of wonder and astonishment, and Jinsoul couldn’t help but smile.

“How is this even posible?” the girl whispered, taking a step forward.

“Many years of work” Jinsoul answered. “I didn’t think we’d make it”.

The door behind Jinsoul creaked, and she turned around to see Yerim coming trough it, carrying several boxes of food.

“Yerim! Come hear, quick, you won’t believe it! It worked!!”

“What the hell are you talking about, what worked?”

“The teleportation machine! I don’t know why those numbers worked but they worked!!”

Yerim peeked from above the cardboard boxes.

“It worked? When, how??”

“What do you mean when? It’s right here” Jinsoul motioned towards the window but when she looked behind her, she realised it had closed. “No! No no no no no no no” she chanted, throwing herself onto the computer that controlled the machine, praying to everything and anything that she would be able to bring it back, to stabilise it. Someone or something must have taken pity on her, because after a few minutes, the window reopened, and she was met with the blonde girl once again.

“I thought you had left” the girl said.

“No, not yet” Jinsoul smiled, ignoring Yerim’s incredulous gasp.

“I’m Jungeun”.

“I’m Jinsoul”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the first chapter! Kudos to you if you were able to identify the two Loona lyrics I inserted (a little heads up: one is from Egoist, and the other from Singing in the rain, albeit a bit changed).  
> I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully the next chapter will be up by Friday.  
> You can find me on my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) and [Curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here I come, with a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it but I'd like to say that I know nothing about science, but please bear with me for the sake of the story (?)  
> Anyway, I really hope you enjoy it!

“And I’m Yerim”, said girl pushed Jinsoul to the side, watching with wide eyes the window and Jungeun behind it.

“Both of you are working on this?”

“Yes, this is my colleague and friend Yerim”. 

At the mention of her name, Yerim raised her hand in a poor attempt of a waving, focused on studying the window. She turned around on her heels and walked back to her desk, where she ripped a piece of paper from a sheet.

“Let’s see if the portal works, shall we, Jinsoul?” she nodded, anxious to see if their hard work had finally paid off. “Jungeun, if it works, don’t touch it until it falls to the ground, okay?”

Without waiting for the blonde to answer, Yerim stood in front of the window, and she carefully started to introduce the paper through it. None of the girls seemed to be breathing, the constant beeping of the machine the only sound that disturbed the silence that had fallen upon the lab. Yerim and Jinsoul stayed rooted in their spots, watching as the paper disappeared from their sight. Jungeun in turn watched as a floating piece of paper gradually appeared in front of her. When her fingers were about to touch the window, Yerim released the paper, that gently descended to the floor, right in front of Jungeun’s feet. For a moment, none of them said a word. Then, all hell broke loose as Yerim and Jinsoul jumped onto each others arms, screaming and laughing at the success they had finally achieved. Had anyone entered the room at that point, they would have met two madwomen, both a blabbering mess, as they cried and laughed at the same time, eyes bright and faces flushed. 

Jinsoul was still laughing when she remembered they weren’t really alone. One look at the window was enough to reveal Jungeun watching them with a smile. Trying to regain some kind of formality, or something that resembled it, she cleared her throat and elbowed Yerim not-so-subtly in her ribs.

“I’m sorry you had to see that” she rubbed her neck, feeling her face heat up even more.

“Don’t worry, I’d probably be even worse if I were you” the smile she shot in their direction was blinding. They stood there in an awkward silence for a few moments, before Yerim decided to take the matter into her own hands.

“Jungeun, could you please give us the paper back? Try not to touch the window itself”.

“Sure”.

She picked the piece of paper from the floor and did as she was told. Yerim grabbed it once it appeared and retreated once more to her table, where she introduced it inside a plastic bag.

“One last thing before we close the window for today, could you please describe us how it looks like from the other side?” Jinsoul asked.

Jungeun scrunched her nose.

“Shouldn’t it look like your side?” 

“We don’t know. This is the first time we’ve managed to make it work. It should look the same on both sides but just to make sure”.

The other girl nodded with a hum, as she glanced at her phone. 

“Shit!” the sudden exclamation surprised both Jinsoul and Choerry. Jungeun threw them a repentant look. “I’m really sorry, I had forgotten I was meeting with my friends today, I can’t stay any longer, I’m so sorry” she started to move away from the frame that allowed them to see her.

“Wait!” the girl looked back at Jinsoul. “I’ll give you my phone number” Jinsoul ignored the surprised faces from the other two. “You can take a picture of the window and send it to me. Or if you don’t want that you can tell us when you’ll be here again and we’ll open the window so we can talk?” she twisted her fingers, anxious.

“Okay. Give me your number, quick, and I’ll send you a text so you know it’s me”.

Jinsoul didn’t waste any more time, as she recited the digits. She soon heard the telltale sound of her notifications from her back pocket, and she smiled. Yerim walked to where Jinsoul was standing, as they watched the other girl snap pictures of the window. She briefly glanced at her friend before speaking.

“One quick question, Jungeun”. Said girl hummed in response. “Where are you right now?”

“Seoul”.

“What a coincidence, we are also in Seoul” she slyly smiled. Jungeun lowered the phone, locking eyes with Jinsoul.

“That’s good to know” they held each other’s gaze until Jungeun broke contact. She moved away from the frame, as she grabbed her stuff and turned off the music. “I wish I could stay, but I’m afraid I really have to go. It was nice meeting you. Congratulations on your success! I’ll send you the pics when I get home!” a door closed in the background.

Yerim hopped back to the computer, and shut down the window. 

“We made it, Jinsoul, we finally made it” she said, letting out an incredulous laugh. Jinsoul laughed too, and they hugged each other.

“Sometimes I thought it was just an impossible dream” she softly confessed, her head buried in her friend’s hair.

“Sometimes, so did I”.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, letting the knowledge of what they’d done sink in. Finally, they moved apart, still smiling.

“We should tell our bosses about this” Yerim said.

“Not yet. Let’s make sure this actually works and it wasn’t a fluke” Yerim looked dubious. “We’ll tell them soon, but I don’t want to tell them it worked for them to come down here and the machine not to work. Please, Yerim. Just one week. We’ll record it and have actual prove” she pointed at the camera that had been forgotten in all the excitement. It couldn’t have been more than five or ten minutes, but she felt exhausted, and it hadn’t even occurred to them they had to record it.

“One week, Jinsoul. After that, we’ll tell them” Jinsoul nodded. “Come eat, we’ll continue later”.

Jinsoul went to grab the boxed that laid forgotten by the roses, but before she fished her phone out of her pocket and checked her texts.

**Unknown number:** _hi! this is jungeun_

**Unknown number:** _I hope we see each other again_

**Unknown number:** _I’m here every day at this same hour ;)_

Jinsoul smiled the whole time they were eating.

 

***

 

Jinsoul was bone deep tired by the time she got home. She was tempted to just lay on her bed, but she had to be a responsible adult, and so she went grocery shopping, cleaned her house and prepared her dinner. She arranged the roses by her window. The phone sat beside her, with only a few notifications from the groupchat she had with her friends. She opened her notebook, adding all the good things that had happened to her, noticing how that day’s entry was considerably longer than the previous ones. She ate her food, tidied the kitchen and finally went to bed. Still no news from Jungeun. She had been waiting the whole day, but she hadn’t received a single text or photo from her. Maybe she had been busy, or she could have forgotten about it. Jinsoul stared at the chat, in doubt. Slowly, she started tipping.

_Hi! I dont wanna bother you but could you please send me the pics?_

She considered sending something more but decided it was enough. She fell asleep waiting for an answer.

 

***

 

“What’s wrong, Jinsoul? You’ve barely said a word since you came”, Yerim asked from where she was, running tests on the piece of paper they had used the day before.

Jinsoul and Yerim were working on the teleportation issues they had seen the day before, trying to stabilise the window, turning it into a proper door, opening it further and further away, at the same time making sure they were able to open the portal. It was a slow and difficult task, but after so much time spent just looking at empty space, it was a welcomed change. 

“Nothing’s wrong” she lied, not even bothering to avert her eyes from the screen.

“Try telling that to someone who _doesn’t_ know you. What’s wrong?”

Jinsoul kept silent. Choerry continued.

“Did Jungeun send you the photos?”

Jinsoul groaned, startling her friend.

“No, she didn’t”.

“Maybe she forgot? Did you try texting her?”

“I did, but she didn’t even answer”.

“She didn’t?”

Jinsoul shook her head, and handed Yerim her phone.

“Check for yourself”.

Yerim introduced the password while Jinsoul continued to steadily record down the data.

“This is weird?” Jinsoul looked at Yerim, her eyebrows arched. “The texts never got through, they weren’t even sent”.

Jinsoul set down her pen, and extended her hand to grab her phone. She checked what Yerim had said and, she was right, the text hadn’t been sent, which was quite strange, as all the other texts had. Maybe it had been a problem on Jungeun’s side.

“Maybe you could ask her now” Yerim suggested, insisting when faced with Jinsoul’s silence.

“Ask her?”

“Of course. We still need to make sure it’s not a fluke, and we need to know how the other side looks like, see if it matches and how stable the portal is. She already knows us, she’ll be there right now, so we won’t have to explain it once again, or risk giving some old lady a heart attack because too strangers appeared all of a sudden in the middle of her room, and I have saved the coordinates so it’s going to be really easy. And before you say anything, you know we can’t open the other side here, it’s too dangerous, there’s not enough space, and we don’t know what possible reaction it could have” she said without a pause, not giving her friend time to complain. They stared at each other in silence until Jinsoul surrendered, dropping her head on the table. Yerim smiled brightly, and went back to her computer. “Ready, Jinsoul?” there was a mumble coming from the space where Jinsoul’s mouth should be. “I didn’t understand a word but it doesn’t matter because ready or not, here it comes”.

Aware of what it was to come, Jinsoul was able to see the portal opening. In the space right in front of the window, the air seemed to quiver, shining softly, like there was some kind of mirror behind it. The air shivered once more, as the beeping became incessant, and then a slit opened in front of them, as if someone had used a knife to gently cut the invisible fabric that created their world. A corner of Jinsoul’s brain wondered whether the camera, properly set that time, would be able to capture what was happening, but her mind was more focused on the impossible that has turned possible right in front of her. And at the other side, Jungeun was looking at them, slightly out of breath, like she had been dancing for a long time before they once again interrupted them.

“Jinsoul! Yerim! I’m so very sorry! I tried to send you the pics but it kept telling me there was some kind of error, which doesn’t make sense because I texted you and it was fine and I was so worried yesterday because I didn’t ignore you but I couldn’t tell you and I’m so very sorry, really!” Jinsoul couldn’t help but smile. It was true she had felt a little bad at not receiving the pics, but she hadn’t been angry, and seeing how flustered the other girl was, she wouldn’t have been able to remain mad even if she had been in the first place.

“Don’t worry about it. I thought you might have been busy, and I tried to send you a text in case you had forgotten but it wasn’t sent, so don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal” Jungeun smiled a bit at that, but still seemed a bit anxious.

“I swear I don’t know what is wrong with my phone, it was working just fine until I had to do something important, ugh” she ran her hands through her hair, huffing. “Do you want to meet up this evening?” Jinsoul was left wide-eyed, a slight blush creeping on Jungeun’s face. “I mean to show you both the pics? Because my phone isn’t working? Only if you want to, of course. You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to, obviously” she stopped herself before she really started rambling.

Yerim, sensing the speechless state her friend was in, took a step forward.

“That’s a great idea! I can’t make it today because I’m busy, but those pictures would be really helpful, so Jinsoul will go, right Jinsoul?” she punctured her question pinching her friend on the arm to get her to snap from the state she was in.

“Sure!” she croaked, hating the way her voice had almost broken. “Where do you want to meet?”

“A café? Do you know The Kim Café?” she suggested, biting her lip. “Five thirty?” Jinsoul nodded weakly, and barely registered Yerim telling Jungeun about how they knew that café because they were friends with the owner. Her gaze was locked on the bottle Yerim always kept by her side, and in which the water had started to weakly tremble, like there was an earthquake. Whatever it was, it ended as soon as it had begun, and Jinsoul pushed it to the back of her mind as she waved goodbye to a smiling Jungeun.

“We don’t need to met her” she said, as Yerim turned off the camera. “She could have shown us the pics through the window. And you’re such a bad liar, you have nothing to do this evening”.

Her friend snorted.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t, maybe it was necessary, maybe it wasn’t but I didn’t see you complaining” she shot her a knowing smile when Jinsoul remained silent. Yerim winked at her. “Shoot your shot, my friend”.

 

***

 

Jinsoul got to the café with time to spare, more nervous than she wanted to admit. She waved at her friend Yves, who worked there, and occupied a table by the window, eagerly watching the faces of everyone that passed by, waiting for a familiar pair of bright brown ayes and blonde hair. Many came and went, but none were the girl she was waiting for.

She stayed there for who knows how long, enough for her to order a second coffee, after the first had turned cold, long enough to be the last person sat there. She stayed until Yves came to shook her shoulder, worried, when the closing hours came. 

Jinsoul sighed and closed her eyes. She let Yves guide her out of the café. 

She hadn’t come.

Jungeun hadn’t come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! See you next week ^^  
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the next chapter, as promised. It took me a little to finish because I was so happy because of Loona's debut! Did you enjoy it? I'm so glad our girls have officially debuted *-* I'll shut up now and let you read, please tell me what you think in the comments <3

Jinsoul tapped her foot against the floor, her eyes fixed on the small clock in the corner of the computer screen. She could sense she was driving Yerim crazy, but she herself felt restless, so there was little she could do.

“She must have had a reason” Yerim insisted, trying to break her friend’s mutism.

“Maybe but I stayed there for hours, Yerim. I sat there like an idiot for over three hours, waiting for someone that never came. I felt so stupid” she pressed her hands against her closed eyes. She didn’t want to think about that, not about the time she had spent waiting, not about the feeling she had when she saw no one was coming and certainly not about how she couldn’t even bring herself to open her notebook when she got home. She had felt so down she hadn’t wanted even call her parents, unable to feign happiness, and not wanting to worry them.

“Let’s ask her now. After all, we still need to see the other side”.

“That’s bullshit and you know it as well as I do. We could open one to any other place and oneof us could go and see what it looks like. We don’t need Jungeun. In fact it would probably be best if we stopped opening a door to her studio. This whole thing was just stupid”.

Yerim stared at her, before scooting closer to Jinsoul. She enveloped her with her arms and rested her cheek against the other’s.

“I know it, but I don’t like seeing you this sad. That girl seemed nice, and I don’t think she meant to stand you up, so we’re going to open it, ask for the pics, find out why she didn’t go and if it turns out she’s an asshole, we’ll ignore her. But let’s not give up just yet, okay?” at Jinsoul’s weak nod, Yerim kissed her cheek, before standing up and forcing Jinsoul to follow her. “Want to do the honours?” she asked, with a small smile, moving aside so that Jinsoul could reach better for the controlers.

They had gotten better at opening the portals, having grown more accustomed, but they still hadn’t been able to open a decent sized one. Jinsoul’s fingers flew over the keyboard, nimbly pressing the keys. Soon after, the portal opened. Jungeun was in front of them, gracefully dancing, her movements so fluid it looked like she was made of water. The music was louder than the previous times they had seen her, and she was dancing with her back facing the two scientists, so she didn’t notice she wasn’t completely alone until the song finished. Jungeun grabbed a bottle of water and a towel, taking a few gulps as she dried her neck. She turned around, and froze when she spotted Jinsoul and Yerim. 

“You never came”, two voices said. At that point Jinsoul and jungeun turned into mirrors of each other. The same shocked expressions, followed by a look of confusion and furrowed brows.

“I was there” Jungeun replied.

“So was I, sat by the window. I even came in early, and left after the closing hours. You were never there”.

“I was!” Jungeun scrambled to get her phone, hastily typing something. She got as close as she could to the portal without touching it, and turned the phone around for Jinsoul and Yerim to see the screen. Both friends exchanged a look before turning their eyes towards the screen. There was a video on it, an Instagram story, just a few seconds long: it was clear it was Jungeun the one who had taken it, the shot showing her face and part of the background. The video was muted but the sound wasn’t needed, not when she turned the phone around so that the camera could capture where she was. It was brief, and the camera soon focused again on Jungeun, only to be cut shortly after, but it was enough for them to know where the other girl was. After all, they had spent enough time there to recognise The Kim Café.

“I was there too”, Jinsoul unlocked her phone and opened the group chat she had with her friends. She scrolled up until she found what she was looking for, the messages starting cheerful and slowly turning from impatient to sad to angry, all in the span of three hours. 

“How could you not see each other? The Café isn’t _that_ big”.

“I… I don’t know. I was there talking to the owner, my friend Haseul, and I swear I didn’t see you”, Jungeun was grabbing her phone so tightly Yerim thought she was going to break it.

Jinsoul was lost in thought, having had a sudden idea, but she refused to seriously contemplate it. It was crazy, even for her. But no matter how hard she tried, the thought didn’t go away.

“Maybe one of you went to a different Café?” Yerim suggested. Jinsoul shook her head.

“I don’t think so. We’ve been there keeping Yves company enough times to know what Café it is and I can recognise it perfectly, and so do you, Yerim: that video was taken there. Yves is our friend, she works there” she added, when she saw Jungeun’s puzzled expression. Her frown deepened.

“I’m pretty sure I know everyone that’s worked there, and I don’t remember anyone named Yves. Are you sure we went to the same place?”

Instead of replying, Jinsoul googled an address on her phone, and selected a picture.

“This is the place I went to” she said, showing Jungeun the image.

“Yes, that’s the one I went to. This is getting even weirder. I’m not understanding anything”.

“I might have an idea” Jinsoul admitted. “But I’m not telling until I’m completely sure, because it’s nuts”. She ignored the stares the other two girls shot her. It was too soon to say anything. “Will you be here tomorrow?”

Jungeun nodded.

“Same time, everyday. Why?”

“Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have an answer and we’ll be able to meet at last, or at least know what the hell is going on. Now we have to close this, though”, Jinsoul went back to the computer, her hands set on the keyboard. She looked up. “I know we should have probably told you this when we first met, but please don’t tell anyone about what you’ve seen. We don’t want the company to fire us” she smiled. Jungeun smiled back.

“No problem, I figured, so I didn’t say a word. It wasn’t easy but I made it. Who do you work for, by the way? If you are allowed to say, of course”.

“BB corporative”, Yerim answered. “It’s no big deal if we tell, everyone knows we’re into this type of research”.

“I thought BB corporative was focused on makeup?” the shock must have been obvious on both Yerim’s and Jinsoul’s faces, because Jungeun blushed, embarrassed. “I would have sworn my friend Heejin was modeling for them”.

Jinsoul and Yerim shared a look, confused.

“We work on many different areas but makeup is certainly not one of them” Yerim said.

“We are more focused on scientific research like teleportation and time traveling. But we also do more ‘normal’ research, focused on medicine or space, for example”.

“I’ll ask Heejin for the company name when she comes back from France. I’m such a disgrace of a friend it’s not even funny, oh my God” she rubbed her eyes, letting out a chuckle. “The time traveling sounds really cool, that’s interesting”.

“It is! They work right beside us, but Jinsoul is really scared by it”, Yerim’s face had gotten brighter, as always when she talked about that particular topic. Jinsoul, however, scowled.

“I’m not scared by it! I just think it’s really dangerous. I don’t particularly like the idea of being stuck in a fucking time loop, always reliving the same day. Plus, the guys that work there are really odd”.

There was a sound and, suddenly, Yerim’s water bottle fell from the table, where it was safely placed. They all looked at each other, surprised, and slightly spooked. Jinsoul retrieved the bottle, frowning. Yerim rolled her eyes, continuing with the conversation.

“Don’t be rude, Hyungwon’s really nice”.

“What about the other one?” Yerim looked doubtful, and Jinsoul raised her brows, expectant.

“Okay, I admit the other guy, Ollie or Oliver or whatever his name, is pretty weird. Whenever we go there he hides, and only talks to us from behind a wall”, she explained to Jungeun, who looked incredulous. “I think he’s shy”.

“I think he’s weird”.

“You’ve never even met him!”

“There’s no need to, the things I’ve heard about him aren’t exactly reassuring”.

“You should stop listening so much to other people’s opinions, Jinsoul”.

“Maybe”, was the answer. Jungeun was smiling at them, and Jinsoul’s heart warmed at the sight. “It was a nice chat, but I’m afraid we really have to close the window and go back to work, so bye, Jungeun. See you tomorrow!”, she quickly shut the portal, while Yerim waved goodbye.

“Are you now going to tell me what your idea was about?”

“No, sorry. I can tell you that, if we’re lucky, you’ll know by this evening. But first, we need to turn this window into a door”.

 

***

 

They worked for hours, in an attempt at getting a decent sized portal. They had managed to figure out how to open a stable one, as long as the other side wasn’t too far away, but they were still small in size. It wasn’t really useful opening a portal through which they couldn’t go, so that was their next step. And finally, they managed to do it. It was long after their working hours had finished, but they refused to leave without doing it. Jinsoul refused to. And Yerim just couldn’t leave her friend alone. And there they were, a gap open in space, the size and shape of a door, the one they had been dreaming about for years. 

“Are you sure about this?” Yerim whispered, tearing her eyes away from the door. Jinsoul craned her neck to face her friend.

“I think so. The tests we’ve run say it’s safe, don’t they?” With a gulp, Yerim nodded. They had been running tests on the piece of paper they had tested the machine on for a few days, trying to see if it had been affected in any way by the process, but all the results had been normal, as they had to be. “Then everything should be fine”.

“This isn’t right, Jinsoul. You can get badly injured! We should wait until we have more information, for fucks sake!” Yerim’s voice cracked. Jinsoul took her hand and gently squeezed it.

“I have a feeling about this, Yerim”.

“We’re scientists! We work with facts and evidence, not with hunches and feelings! That’s how everything goes to shit, Jinsoul!!” Yerim’s eyes were bright with unshed tears, and Jinsoul’s heart clenched at the sight, but she had to do it. She felt it deep down, knew it would work. It was as if she had been in that same place a hundred times, always making the same decision, and she knew that, if she were to stand there a hundred times in the future, she would still make the same choice. It was engraved in her, so deeply it could not disappear. No one could convince her of otherwise. 

“It’ll be fine, Yerim. Just trust me. You trusted me enough to use the papers I found at my desk, you trusted me enough to come to this very company! You’re my oldest friend, and you’ve always had my back. Trust me in this, please” she pleaded, looking her straight in the eye. Yerim closed her eyes, and two tears streamed down her face, falling to the floor. She tipped her head up, and nodded, her lips pressed in a thin line. 

“I trust you, Jinsoul” she wiped her face with her free hand. “Please don’t die” she whispered, cradling her friend into her arms.

“Don’t worry, that’s not happening anytime soon. You’re never getting rid of me”. She pecked Yerim’s temple before gently disentangling herself from her friends arms. “Let’s do it” she smiled, getting a weak hum in response.

Jinsoul turned towards the portal, and made sure the camera she had hanging around her neck was recording. She had given her friend some very precise coordinates. She had left for a short while during their lunch break to get the data she needed. Her theory would be tested right then and there. She didn’t know whether she wanted to be right or not, if she was honest, but she was about to hopefully get some answers. If she was right, she would appear right on the hallway that lead to the restroom’s located at The Kim Café. She just hoped she wouldn’t suddenly appear in front of anyone. Or worse, on top of someone. That would be pretty difficult to explain.

“Remember, I will close it after you go through, and will open it again in exactly ten minutes from then. If you aren’t there by the time I open it again, I’m going through it to search for you, and I’m kicking your ass back here, understood?”

Jinsoul quickly agreed, knowing better than to piss her friend off, and without another word, she went through the portal. There was no resistance, and it felt like stepping into a pool. As soon as she set foot in it, a blinding light encompassed her, getting brighter and brighter, and forcing her to close her eyes. She felt lightheaded, like she had run too much, and couldn’t get enough oxygen. It was over a few instants later, but the sudden return to the usual environment made her feel dizzy and she almost fell, only managing to stay standing because she held onto the wall. Jinsoul rested her back on the cool surface behind here, slowly breathing through her nose, trying to get the world to stop spinning around. She took the lack of screaming as a sign that no one had seen her appear out of nowhere and, sure enough, when she was able to pry her eyes open, she confirmed she was alone in the narrow hallway. The portal was already gone. A quick glance at her watch informed her that she had nine minutes left and so she pulled herself off the wall, not wanting to waste time catching her breath.

The dim-lit corridor lead to the familiar inside of the Café with the same small round tables, the same light coloured walls and the same large windows. It was crowded, as always, but there was something amiss: she recognised none of the waiters and waitresses that navigated their way trough the tables. Jinsoul knew for a fact that Yves was supposed to work that evening and she had been in the Café enough times to meet each and every one of the employees, but right then, none of them rung a bell. Behind the counter were two people, one being a short girl wearing space buns, serving the customers, the other looking a couple years older, pushing her bangs away from her eyes as she was in charge of the cash register. 

Jinsoul looked around and made her way to the door. The beating of her heart had turned deafening to her own ears, and she briefly considered going back, forgetting what had happened. She had never been a coward but she had a feeling, something that had been bugging her for the whole week, that was making her feel increasingly nervous. However, she brushed it aside. She wouldn’t back down, not when Yerim and her had been working so hard for such a long time. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and stepped outside the Café.

At first, everything seemed normal: she was in a sea of unfamiliar faces, surrounded by familiar buildings, like every other day. But a closer inspection revealed what she was missing. The edifice to the right of the cafeteria looked the same, but instead of the cozy bookstore she saw whenever she went to meet up with her friends at the Café, there was an elegant bakery. The drugstore to the left of the café was still there, but the front of the building was different, and the same happened with the café’s façade. 

Jinsoul turned around. It didn’t matter where she looked, everything was the same yet different. Sometimes it was little details, like a building painted the wrong colour, but other times, there were huge changes, like it had happened with the café.

Jinsoul gulped. She had entertained the idea briefly that morning but hadn’t wanted to believe. It was too much, even for her. But there was no point in denying it any further. She had the proof right in front of her eyes. She finally knew the answer to why her texts had never gotten through and why Jungeun had never met her. She couldn’t have done it no matter how hard she’s tried. 

It was imposible, for they lived in different universes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to the three of you that guessed what was happening. I guess I made it too obvious, huh? Well, I hope you still have enjoyed it ^^ Regarding the random Monsta X cameo, they're my boys, I couldn't pass on the oportunity.  
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I will come back next Friday with the next one. Stream Hi High!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	4. Chapter 4

Somehow, Yerim and her had done the unthinkable: they had proven the existence of multiple universes, even opening a door to one of them. They had managed to do so much more than what they had expected, than what they had ever dream of. They would be everywhere. They would be famous all around the world, the first scientists to opening a door to a different universe. Hell, they might as well be known across not only one, but two! Who knew what more they could do?

Her thoughts and daydreaming were interrupted when the Earth trembled. It was short, not lasting longer than ten seconds, but it was as intense as it was short. She almost fell, stumbling into the man standing in front of her, who thankfully steadied her before she met the floor. Around her, the people wore expressions varying from surprise to various degrees of terror. Some of them were pale, some hugged their loved ones closer, some were frantically using their phones, but most were watching warily their surroundings, like they expected the buildings to fall down on them. The clock ticked, and nothing happened, as if the ground had never shaken beneath their feet, but all of them quickened their pace, hurrying to get away from there.

Jinsoul looked at her watch, at the five minutes that were left on the timer. She bit her lip, her eyes darting between the café’s door and the street; there was still plenty of time left and she didn’t want to leave, not when there was so much to see. She hadn’t come this far to leave after barely stepping out from the café and not even the earthquake would deter her, so she went down the street, nimbly dodging the people around her. She made sure to record everything there was to see as best as she could, hoping that the images would still be there when she returned to her side, to her own universe, that they wouldn’t get erased with the trip. 

She reached the end of the street, and where she expected to see a cluster of skyscrapers, the same she saw everyday when going back home, there was a beautiful park. Jinsoul itched with the urge to explore what that universe had to offer, but she was running out of time, so she just made sure everything was being recorded properly on the camera. She turned around, aiming for the café, where Yerim would be opening the portal soon, but a store on the other side caught her attention. She stopped, dubious. It was very likely that she would be late, but she knew Yerim would never leave her stranded there. That was a problem in itself, though, as she might as well leave everything behind and go after her, risking getting lost, and Jinsoul didn’t want that. Well, she would have to be as quick as humanly posible.

She crossed the street, and sprinted towards the store that had caught her eye. She browsed the shelves, and grabbed the first phone that she deemed halfway decent. She only needed a burner phone, and as soon as she got it, she grabbed the box and ran back to the store, hoping that the door would still be open, and that no one had seen it. Her phone had many texts from Yerim, full of uppercase written sentences and plenty exclamation marks, and they kept coming. 

On her hurry to get back to the hallway, she almost ran into one of the waiters at the café. She threw an apology over her shoulder without stopping, almost tripping when she turned around the corner, praying to see the portal. And sure enough, there was it, showing a worried Yerim, who looked like she was just about to go look for Jinsoul and whose whole face lit up when she saw her sprinting towards the entrance. Jinsoul slowed down as she came closer, unwilling to discover how it would feel to come crashing onto the portal just yet, and quickly inspected the door, trying to see if there was something weird about it. It was a brief inspection, though, with Yerim urging her to go through the portal, and her own brain telling her to hurry up before someone saw them. 

So Jinsoul went through, the portal closing behind her as soon as she set foot on her own side, and she collapsed beside Yerim, her back against the table’s drawers.

“Are you insane? Where the fuck were you!? I was so worried about you! I thought something had gone wrong and you were dying somewhere or you had been run over by a car or so many horrible things because you didn’t come back when we agreed you’d do it!!” Yerim’s voice had gotten louder as she spoke, but it eventually wavered and broke. She rested her hands on the table, her head hanging low.

She didn’t move until she felt Jinsoul’s hand around her ankle, her head against her leg. She left out a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Yerim. I tried to get back as soon as I could, but I had to see”.

“See what? We already knew it worked, what else did you have to do?”

Jinsoul lifted her head, and found Yerim already looking down at her. She grabbed her hand and pulled her close, dragging her to the floor.

“We didn’t just find a way to teleport ourselves” Yerim was staring at her with a baffled expression and Jinsoul hesitated, unsure of how to explain what had happened. She opted for a direct approach. “It was a different universe. Somehow the portal we opened is a link to some other universe and that’s why Jungeun and I never met, why she never received my texts. And I have evidence!” She continued when Yerim opened her mouth, not giving her a chance to interrupt her. “That’s why it took me longer, because I just had to see it with my own eyes, and I had to get proof of it so that you didn’t thing I’d lost my mind”.

Yerim’s eyes were locked on her face, her expression carefully blank, but Jinsoul could almost see her brain working, and held her breath, waiting for her response. 

“Show me what you got, come on”.

Jinsoul grinned, and clapped, before handing her friend the camera. The camera, thankfully, appeared to be working just fine, and had recorded the whole of the brief trip she had just had. The sound wasn’t too good, but it wasn’t essential, so she didn’t worry about it. While she waited anxiously for Yerim to view the entirety of the footage, she opened the box that she’d never put down, and pulled out the phone, setting it ready.

“It’s true” Yerim whispered. She turned her gaze on Jinsoul, paling. “How is this even posible? How did do this? Did you know!?”

“I didn’t know. I thought it might be it this morning, that’s why I wanted to stay behind and work on this. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I thought it was too much. Like it made sense but it was just crazy, so I had to check it before I said anything”.

“You should have told me, Jinsoul”. Said girl smiled softly.

“Would you have believed me?” Yerim averted her eyes, silent. “It sounds like I have gone mad. That’s why I couldn’t tell you until I was sure. It could have been some very weird coincidences and us being completely dumb, but I had to see it first. I’m sorry I said nothing but I didn’t want you to worry”, she grabbed Jinsoul’s hand, half in an apology, half in an attempt at comforting her friend, whom she could see was feeling guilty. Yerim’s eyes landed on her lap, where Jinsoul was still clutching the phone and raised an eyebrow.

“I thought that maybe the reason Jungeun and I couldn’t communicate was because we were using different devices” Yerim tilted her head. “Like, we were both using our phones but she couldn’t receive my texts, so I thought maybe it was because we live in different universes, so it’s like we’re shouting to the void”.

“So you bought a phone on her universe to see if it would solve your problems” Jinsoul nodded, her hands caressing the phone. “Seems like an awful lot of trouble for a girl”. She smiled as Jinsoul shoved her, embarrassed, but she sobered up quickly. “How did the first text get through, then?”

“The only explanation I see is that the portal was open so maybe it’s like there was a direct line? But we closed it and then there was nothing the texts could follow so they were never sent”.

Yerim hummed in responde. Jinsoul knew she wasn’t convinced, but she hadn’t been able to come up with anything else that would explain it, so they’d have to settle with that. As Yerim leaned over to get the camera, she turned on the phone, introducing Jungeun’s number. Her finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before she finally typed something. When she sent the text, she tossed away the phone and tried to ignore the nervousness that made her whole body buzz. Instead, she moved so she sitting next to Yerim, her head on her friend’s shoulder, to see what she was doing. 

Yerim was focused on the recording, so Jinsoul stayed silent, and watched it for the first time. When it finished, Yerim went back, to the moment when Jinsoul stepped out of the café and watched once again.

“What’s wrong?” Jinsoul asked, when she saw her friend absentmindedly bitting her thumb. 

“What happened here?” she replayed the scene once more, starting when Jinsoul opened her door, up to the moment when she started to walk to the end of the street. “Why did the image shake?”

“There was an earthquake. It wasn’t very long, but it was scary. I almost fell, hadn’t it not been for that guy” she could sense Yerim wasn’t really listening to her.

“Why? Why did it happen?”

“What do you mean why? Earthquakes happen” Jinsoul asked, genuinely confused.

“Yes, I know, but there was another one here, at the same time!”

“I mean, they are parallel universes, so it isn’t _that_ strange. I suppose things like that happen in both of them”.

“No, no, not that” Yerim was running her hands through her hair, her foot moving on it’s own accord, and Jinsoul knew that meant she was having some kind of revelation. “I think it’s something different, something bad” she felt silent, her eyes unfocused. “Do you remember when the bottle fell down when we weren’t touching it? We didn’t think about it but what if it is important? What if it didn’t fall on it’s own?”

“I’m not sure I follow” Jinsoul admitted, starting to worry for her friend, who was bitting her lip with too much force, lost in her thoughts. 

“I think there was an earthquake, that made the bottle fall down. And now there was another one in the other universe? And it also happened here. That would be two times there’s been an earthquake when we’ve used the machine. What if everything’s connected?”

“So you’re saying that when we use the machine and open a portal, there’s an earthquake?”

“Maybe? I don’t know” Jinsoul untangled Yerim’s fingers from her locks to prevent her from unwillingly hurting herself. It wouldn’t be the first time. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong that’s causing the disruption? Maybe the ‘connection’” she air-quoted, “is unstable and we’re hurting them in some way? Or maybe I’m just saying stupid shit and nothing’s happening, and it’s completely normal for the earthquakes to happen at the same time in different universes. It’d not that it doesn’t make sense, it’s just that I think it’s too much of a coincidence” she sighed.

Jinsoul stayed with her chin rested on her friend’s shoulder, holding her in a loose embrace as she calmed down, feeling the tension slowly disappearing.

“I say we run some tests. It could be nothing, but we can’t risk it, and you tend to be spot-on so let’s not take risks. If we’re wrong, then there’s little we can do, but if we’re right, we better be prepared. If what you say it’s true… The earthquakes have been getting progressively stronger, and that’s worrying me, to be honest”. She stood up and extended her arms towards Yerim, helping her up as well. “So let’s get to work” Yerim nodded weakly and smiled. “Any idea on where to start?”

“Whatever we do, we’re going to have to keep the machine running and we need an open portal, I don’t think we can really get answers with it closed”.

“It would be like trying to see through a window with the blinds closed” Jinsoul agreed. “So we need a place in which to open the portal where no one will find it, we can’t risk anyone seeing it and coming through it”.

“We could try and make it smaller. And maybe place it somewhere high and that way people wouldn’t see it” none of them seemed too convinced by the suggestion.

“We are _so_ screwed if anyone finds out about this” Jinsoul groaned.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No, so let’s pray that no one finds out about this. Tomorrow we don’t have to come to work, so if we leave the machine working and collecting the data we can hopefully come back on Monday and everything will be okay. And if we aren’t lucky and someone finds the portal maybe we won’t be fired because after all, we were the ones that made if work in the first place?”

Yerim drummed her fingers on the table, pensively.

“There are so many things that could go wrong. Let’s do it”.

They both smiled, and proceeded to get to work. It was already late, way past the time they were supposed to leave, but they didn’t really mind. The curiosity, the need for answers, was stronger than their wish to go back home. The sky was already pitch black by the time they left the building, tired but happy after managing to open a small portal that they hoped no one would see. They had settled on opening one at the café. It may not have been the best place, but it was the only one they had been able to see themselves, and they thought it would be best than risking opening a portal on an unknown location, of which they didn’t know the internal layout. Hopefully they would get answers and, if they were lucky enough, no one would see the floating rectangle that hid so much more than what met the eye.

It wasn’t until she went to be and plugged the phone next to her that Jinsoul remembered the phone she had bought that same morning. She had forgotten about it with all the hassle, but then, tucked into bed, she had the time and the willpower to finally check her texts. As soon as she unlocked it, she smiled.

_Jungeun? This is Jinsoul_

_Jinsoul!! Hi!_

_I’m sorry it took me so long to answer, I had to go to the hospital, I just got home_

_Did you get a new phone?? I’m so happy we can finally talk!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've reached the equator of this fic. I really hope you're enjoying it, and that I made the things sufficiently clear, but if you're confused by anything, just ask me and I'll try my best to explain it better ^^  
> Thank you so much for reading this story, you don't know how much it means to me <3  
> See you next week with another chapter!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! We're nearing the end of this fic and this is tarting to get more technical (or as technical as it may get considering how poor my scientific knowledge is, so please just don't question it too much because i have no answers *swallows nervously*). Either way, I tried to make it as easy as posible but if there's something you don't understand, please feel free to tell me and I'll try to explain it better!  
> I hope you enjoy it ^^

“Everything’s ready, can you hear me?” The phone was in front of her, the speaker turned on, while she was curled up on her couch, waiting for Jungeun to answer.

She had replied to her text before she had gone to sleep. Her fingers itched with the urge to call Jungeun, but she knew it wasn’t the best of the ideas: it was late, and both of them were tired. So she decided to just text, promising to call the next morning to tell the other everything that had happened (all in the name of science, of course). It was a good thing neither of them had to work that day, being a holiday in both their universes, and Jungeun had decided to ditch her practice and stay in to talk to Jinsoul (all for the sake of her curiosity, of course). 

It was a good thing Jinsoul had decided to tidy her apartment before calling Jungeun, because they had been glued to their phones since then, talking non-stop, to the point where she had had to plug her phone after it had run out of battery in the middle of their conversation. Jinsoul had never moved faster in her life, hurrying back to her bedroom, almost falling down in the haste to get back to her phone and her conversation.

They had been talking about everything and anything. Jinsoul had briefly explained what she thought had happened, but it wasn’t long until they abandoned the technical part of the conversation, and they started talking about themselves. She learned that the reason why Jungeun was in the studio everyday was because she dreamt of making herself a name as a famous dancer, and that she danced until her feet bled. Jinsoul’s first impulse was to apologise for constantly interrupting her during that week, but Jungeun had laughed it off, saying she had made her week more interesting, and managing to make the other girl blush. In return, Jinsoul told her a bit about her job, about Yerim, and how they had ended up choosing a rather unconventional path for their careers, and how that had made others mock them, which in turn had made both of them even more determined to succeed.

And so they talked. Jungeun told Jinsoul about her friends, and her love for them was obvious even through the phone, the excitement in her voice palpable as she rambled, about the owner of the café, who’d do anything for her little sister, the girl for which all of them had a soft spot; about her friend who happened to be a model, who was wanted by almost every big company out there and the one who had decided to invest all her savings in opening a bakery, next to the café she previously owned, where she sold almost every kind of bread one could imagine, to end up telling her about the one who was in the hospital, still recovering from injuries that had made her undergo surgery that had turned half her body to metal parts. 

And when Jungeun’s voice wavered, Jinsoul quickly took over and told her about her parents, whom she missed dearly, about how Yerim and her had been friends since high school, always knowing they wanted to make themselves a name as a scientist, and who had been her rock for so many years. She told Jungeun about how one of her friends was a rising author, who spend her days writing in the café where Jungeun and her were supposed to meet, the same place in which one of her friends worked, when she wasn’t in a shoot, or spending time with her girlfriend, the owner of both said café and of a voice that would put angels to shame.

Jinsoul had never been one for phone conversations, preferring a face-to-face one, but as they kept talking and talking, she found herself unwilling to put an end to it. She felt herself almost as confortable with Jungeun as she was with her friends, something that she had never thought would happen with a stranger. And so, when Jungeun hesitantly suggested they watched a movie, she had been quick to agree. It didn’t matter to her that Jungeun had suggested the cheesy movie she had taken a look at and decided wasn’t for her, because if Jungeun wanted to watch it and for them to talk about it over the phone, who was she to refuse?

With her phone plugged in and her computer ready, Jinsoul smiled when Jungeun gave her the heads up to start the movie, looking forward to spending the evening just like that.

 

***

 

“Don’t you feel like we already know each other?”

Jinsoul looked up from where was kneeling down, searching for something she could quickly heat up in order to it, but the movement caused her to bump her head into the refrigerator’s open door. Grunting, she stood up, one hand rubbing the sore zone, the other grabbing a soup container Chuu had brought her, after she had made way too much soup for her and Yves, and walked back to the table where she had left the phone.

“What do you mean?” she carefully lifted up the lid, and poured some soup to heat it up.

“I don’t know, it’s like we’re really confortable with each other. Not that that’s bad” Jungeun hurried to say, “I just find it funny, considering we’ve never even seen each other, and that it always takes me so much more time to warm up to another person”.

“It’s the same for me”.

“Yeah?” even if it was more a sound than a word, Jinsoul would have sworn she could hear the smile in her voice. It would have been better if they could actually see each other, and they had tried Skype, but Jinsoul’s burner phone wasn’t good enough, so they had settled for the phone calls.“Well, it’s that I feel like I’ve already been here before, like I’ve already lived this”.

“Like a déjà vu?” the line became silent for a couple seconds.

“Maybe. It’s so obvious you’re a scientist, you’re so much better at coming up with explanations for things that I am”.

“It’s not really an explanation” she smiled as she carefully poured the soup into a plate, turning off the stove. “But did you have a theory?” Jungeun hummed as an answer. “What was it?”

“The reason we sometimes feel like this is because” Jungeun purposefully lowered her voice, and Jinsoul strained to hear her, “we’re Sims”.

Jinsoul was so surprised she spit her soup, over her table and phone. Coughing, she grabbed it and quickly dried it and the table.

“Excuse me? Sims?” she could barely keep in the laughter, even if she knew Jungeun wouldn’t get mad if she couldn’t.

“Yes” Jungeun’s voice was completely serious. “It’s not my theory, I read it somewhere on Twitter, but it explains a lot”.

“Do tell, please” Jinsoul said with a smile, getting back to her soup.

“You know those times when you go somewhere to do something but you can’t remember why you went there? There are some who say it’s because we’re all Sims and the person controlling us canceled what they wanted us to do. So, maybe, the reason we feel the ‘déjà vus’ is because we already did this, but someone rebooted the game and we are repeating something we did in the past”.

“That’s crazy” Jinsoul answered. There was huffing on the other side of the line.

“Says the one that just crossed _onto another universe_ ” came the reply, in a tone of faked annoyance. “Do you have a better theory, huh?”

“Actually, I do” she said, feeling a bit smug. “Forget about the Sims, my money is on time traveling”.

“How?”

“Imagine that we could, in fact, travel back in time. But not just _you_ going back in time, instead, like… Rewind the time” she knew she was explaining herself very poorly, so she started again. “Imagine you could ‘restart’ the day. Not just your day, but everyone’s day. And everyone would do the same thing once again. You would have freedom to do whatever the hell you wanted, but the others would be stuck in the routine, and they would feel like they a déjà vu because they _have_ done that before. The scary thing about it is that, potentially, you could be stuck in a time loop forever, if there was someone pressing the button that made you restart the day”.

“And how could you break the loop?” 

Jinsoul shrugged, even if she knew no one could see her.

“I guess you’d have to do something that you hadn’t done originally, to break the loop, or the person behind it should have to stop going back in time”.

“That’s frankly quite scary”.

“It is, that’s why I hate time traveling, it scares me to death. But don’t worry, that shit isn’t posible. If it were, I would have found a way to do it. Yerim and I would have. We researched it briefly, before it freaked me out” she confessed.

“No offense but I’m sticking to my theory. Yours is making my head spin. So tell me, what are you doing this afternoon?”

“I’m going out with my friends in an hour. We haven’t hung out in a while, so I’m really excited for it!”

“I’m so happy for you! My friends and I should have to do the same, hopefully when Heejin comes back from France! Sadly, I have to say goodbye, I have to go grocery shopping and you have to get ready to hang out with your friends. Talk to you tomorrow?”.

“Talk to you tomorrow”, she agreed, with a small smile.

Jinsoul looked at the time, and saw it was still another hour to the time she and Yerim were supposed to met up, meaning that she had around an hour and a half, if she was lucky. She must have run out of luck, because Yerim was even more late than usual, and by the time they reached their friends, they were awfully late. At least their friends were used to it, and had gone and ordered without waiting for them to get there.

It had been long since the last time they all had hung together, and Jinsoul had to admit it was mainly her fault. She had been way too tired for the last few weeks, the stress and disappointment taking a toll on her, to feel like going out with her friends, and it was refreshing to finally be with them. Yves told them about her latest shoot, when they had told her she might be able to get more important jobs soon, which made her really excited. She spent her time at Chuu’s café, but she had always wanted to be a model, and after all her effort, it seemed like it was finally paying off. Chuu was an excited mess, like always, so proud of her girlfriend she was literally glowing, constantly bragging of her. Jinsoul was sure the only reason Chuu hadn’t hung her girlfriend’s pics on her café was because Yves had threatened to leave had that happened. Go Won, on the other hand, had decided to use that time to quiz Yerim and Jinsoul for their scientific knowledge: she was determined to branch out as an author, trying to write something completely different, so she was going to use her friends’ experience to make the story as believable and accurate as posible.

By the time they left, Go Won had asked them almost a hundred questions, filling her notebook with their answers, and Jinsoul’s head was slightly pounding, but she didn’t care, not when she could help her friend like that. They then went to the cinema, to watch an adaptation of Yerim’s favourite book. The plan was for them to grab dinner together after it ended. Sadly, it didn’t go like that.

“Jinsoul, we have to go. Now” before she could even process the words, Yerim’s fingers were around her wrist, interrupting her conversation with Go Won, and forcefully dragging her away from her friends, all of them as shocked as Jinsoul herself.

“What’s wrong?” Yves asked, turning to Go Won, her fingers interlaced with Chuu’s. Go Won shook her head.

“Yerim, what the hell is happening? Stop pulling, you’re going to rip my arm off!” she cried out.

“Sorry girls, but Jinsoul and I have to go back to the lab right now”. One look at her friend’s face was enough to convince Jinsoul to follow her immediately.

“We’ll text you later” she said, grabbing her purse, and hurrying after Yerim as she went over to her car.

“What’s going on, Yerim?” she didn’t get an answer until Yerim started the car, and they drove to their lab.

“You know how I need to control what’s going on in the lab, right?” Jinsoul nodded, even if she knew Yerim wasn’t really giving her any attention. “Before we left, I set up an alarm, connected to the program we left scanning the portal. It gives me regular updates. I didn’t really look through them, I just wanted to know everything was alright, but I just got an alarm, and the lectures had gone completely wild. We can’t study this on my phone so we really have to go back there and see what’s happening, because this is way too important to wait until Monday or even until Saturday”.

The rest of the drive was silent, and tense, both of them worried about the news. Jinsoul had tried reading the report on Yerim’s phone, but gave up almost as soon as she started, as the letters were too small, and she started to get dizzy. As soon as they reached the building, Yerim sprinted to their lab, Jinsoul right behind her, opening the door when Yerim fumbled with the keys.

The lab was dimly lit by the computer screen’s glow. As Jinsoul stopped to turn on the lights, Yerim went straight to the computer, her eyes scanning the data. When Jinsoul got closer to her, she could see her face paling, her hands gripping the edge of the table, knuckles white with the strength she was using.

“What’s wrong, Yerim?” 

Her friend shook her head, her fingers raking through her hair. It was clear she wasn’t going to explain anything to her right then, so Jinsoul sat down and read. And the more she read, the more she understood, and the faster her heart beat.

“How is this posible?” she whispered, eyes wide.

“I don’t know, but it’s true, Jinsoul. You’re seeing it as I am” Yerim replied, with a strangled voice.

“I thought we were the first ones”.

“We were wrong. And whoever did this fucked up. Big time” Yerim started tidying up her desk, a habit she had picked up in college when she was nervous, but her hands shook too badly, almost dropping whatever she tried to grab. “What do we do, Jinsoul? How do we solve this?”

“We need to close the portal. Right now” as she spoke, her fingers flew over the keyboard, pressing the combination that would close it.

“That won’t do. It’s like… Like putting a fucking bandaid on a gun shoot!” Yerim spluttered, breath hitching.

“I know!! But what else are we supposed to be do? I didn’t even expect the machine to work, and now the universe may collapse? I don’t know what to do!!”

Yerim snorted, her mouth twisted in a bitter smile.

“Not just one, Jinsoul. If this is right, someone did the same thing we did and opened a portal. And somehow they fucked up so bad they hurt the very fabric of the universe. So I guess they closed them for good, because we never heard about this. And because we never knew, we went and opened another fucking portal, weren’t careful enough, and now the universe may collapse. And I don’t think it will just be ours, Jinsoul”.

“Jungeun’s too” Jinsoul felt the blood leave her face.

“If we’re lucky, that’s it. We don’t know how many more are affected and how the collapsing of one may affect the others. Every time we opened the door, there was an earthquake, here and there. It was a warning, and we didn’t even realise. We don’t know in how many more universes it happened. So many people could be hurt by what we did, Jinsoul” Yerim whispered, breathless.

“Okay, okay, let’s think, there must be something we can do” she muttered, pulling her sleeves down, almost to the point of breaking them. “If I’m reading this correctly, someone opened a portal and it almost teared the universes apart. Both of them. But it looks like they are repairing themselves, like your body when you get hurt. So maybe, if we close the doors, and we never open them again, we could prevent this from happening”.

“Even if we did, Jinsoul, the fabric of the universes is too thin! One wrong movement, one door opened for a second too long, could bring all us down”.

“So we don’t open them. We burn all out research, we smash the computer to pieces! We can’t make sure no one ever manages to find a way again, but we can delay it a little longer, give our universes time to fix themselves” she said, a sliver of hope growing in her chest.

“I guess you were right when not wanting to tell our bosses, huh?” Yerim smiled like it pained her, and Jinsoul knew she was still thinking about all the people they had potentially endangered, so she got up to envelop her friend in her arms. “Still, we can’t destroy all the equipment yet. We need to try and figure out a way of fixing this mess. We can’t just shove it to the people that come after us, it’s not fair, and it may end in disaster”.

Jinsoul sighed and nodded, knowing that what Yerim said was true. Even so, she found herself wondering how things could have gone so wrong, how a week that she expected to be ordinary had developed in such a way she had managed to fulfill her dream, meet a cute girl, and practically doom both their universes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope that wasn't too confusing. And I want to say beforehand that it's quite posible next chapter's going to be shorter than the ones we've had because I have an exam coming up so I may have less time to write plus I may upload it on Thursday because I'm having a really busy weekend, but hopefully I'll be able to upload 6 on Thursday.   
> I hope you enjoyed this! Wish me luck!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, there! As I told you last week, this week's chapter comes a little early because I'm not sure I will be able to post it tomorrow and I didn't want to post much later. This chapter is a little shorter than usual but I hope what goes on in it makes up for it ;) I really hope you enjoy it and I also wanted to thank all of you who are reading it because Living in different nations got 500 hits and it's about to reach 600 so, thank you so much for reading it!!! I know it's not *that* much, but it means the world to me, so I'm really thankful to all of you <33

Jinsoul woke up when the sun hit her eyes. Her neck hurt and her back was killing her, after spending the night sleeping on her desk. One look at herself with the inner camera of her phone was enough to see her hair looked like a bird’s nest. It felt like a bird’s nest. Next to her, Yerim was sleeping too, her arms serving as pillows, drool pooling from the corner of her mouth. They must have fallen asleep while reading the data, trying to come up with some kind of solution. They hadn’t had such luck.

She got up, slowly stretching herself. It had been a long time since the last time she had slept at the lab, Yerim having made it her mission to make sure she got proper rest, forcing her to go home, after she had deemed it had been one too many times that Jinsoul hadn’t gotten out of the building. She had fallen asleep on her desk so many times her body had grown accustomed to it, and even then, after all the time it had passed, she wasn’t hurting as much as she should be, as much as she had hurt that first time. However, she was pretty sure Yerim was going to wake up feeling like her body had been folded and squeezed into a suitcase.

She shook her friend by her shoulder, careful not to scare her, remembering that one time she hadn’t taken enough precautions and had been smacked in the face. Yerim stirred, waking up, just before sitting bolt upright, her eyes wide open.

“The portals” she babbled, hands scrambling to grab the papers that were disseminated around her.

“They’re closed, don’t worry. Everything’s like last night” Jinsoul stifled a yawn with her hand, stretching her body.

“We fell asleep?” Yerim’s voice was still hoarse, the sleepiness clinging to her as she blinked repeatedly, trying to fully wake up. Jinsoul grunted affirmatively. “Great” she rubbed her eyes, grimacing. “What time is it?”

“Around twelve in the afternoon. We should go get something to eat”.

Yerim shook her head.

“We need to keep working on this”.

“It will be useless if we can’t concentrate and you know you can’t focus on an empty stomach, Yerim, so we will go and eat something. We can go to the vending machine downstairs if you want but we’re not going to be working here if we can’t do our best. You were the one that taught me that, and now you’re going to follow your own advice”.

Without giving Yerim a chance to disagree, she pulled her up from where she was sitting and pushed her towards the door. Yerim might be one of the sweetest people in the world, but she was also extremely stubborn, so the only way to get her out of that room and get her to eat something was by not giving her time to react. She closed the door behind them, not bothering to lock, and they headed towards the stairs to go down the one floor they needed in order to get to the vending machine. Yerim was still sleepy, as it had always taken her more time to wake up, so Jinsoul was half carrying her along the corridor.

They had stayed up, trying to figure out a way to solve the problem, studying all the information they had. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to, and sleep finally made it’s way to them, as they fell under a deep slumber almost at the same time, cheeks resting on the same papers they had been so closely studying. The only good thing is that they had apparently determined what was happening to their universes, which was in fact bad news: it seemed like only their universes would be the ones affected, but because not only they were being ripped apart, they were moving towards each other, getting closer, overlapping, until only one would remain. They didn’t know which one was ‘winning’. Jinsoul had suggested they tried and figure it out. Yerim had refused. Jinsoul had taken a look at her red rimmed eyes and decided not to push her.

Jinsoul was lost in deep thought as they walked the corridors, and didn’t notice the crunch beneath her shoe.

“What the hell?” 

Yerim stopped suddenly, forcing Jinsoul to stop abruptly with her. She glanced at her friend, who was staring right in front of them with a puzzled look on her face. Jinsoul followed her gaze, her brows arching when she realised what had surprised Yerim so much: the vending machine they were going to use was completely broken. Someone had pushed it to the ground and smashed it to pieces. They had also taken the food inside it, leaving only the shell back, surrounded by sherds of broken glass.

“Just when you think your week can’t get any weirder something like this has to happen” Yerim muttered, running a hand through her hair. “Let’s go back, then” she turned around to leave, but Jinsoul clutched her wrist before she could go far.

“We’re not going back until we both have eaten something so we’re going to go and buy something to eat and we’ll tell someone what had happened here. The last thing we need is someone thinking we did this”.

She gently tugged at Yerim’s wrist, heading towards the cafeteria that was just a couple streets from their building. They bought two sandwiches and decided to eat them there. They weren’t the best they had ever tasted but they hadn’t really had anything for dinner so they devoured them and ordered another one, eating in silence, both of them lost in their minds.

“I have to tell Jungeun” Jinsoul blurted out. Yerim just looked at her silently, her arms crossed on top of the table. “I can’t just close the portal and not tell her anything. It would hurt her” she lowered her gaze, playing with her plate. “I guess I’ll have to get rid of the phone. We can’t really risk having it here, it’s a connection with the other side, with her universe. Everything could go to shit because of it”.

Yerim intertwined their fingers, squeezing gently, and Jinsoul shot her a weak and brief smile. Just then, the phone started to ring. Her heart sunk. With her free hand, she dug it out of her pocket. She didn’t even read the name. There was only one person to whom she talked on that phone. She picked the call up.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT’S GOING ON??” She almost dropped the phone, Jungeun’s voice piercing through her ears.

“Jungeun? What’s wrong?”

Yerim looked at her, confused, and Jinsoul shook her head in response.

“‘What’s wrong?’ THERE’S A PORTAL IN THE MIDDLE OF MY PRACTICE ROOM AND YEOJIN JUST WENT THROUGH IT, THAT’S WRONG. WHERE IS SHE?”

Alarmed, Jungeun motioned to Yerim to get up.

“Jungeun, calm down, I’m not understanding you. Take deep breaths and tell me what’s happening” Jinsoul could practically hear Jungeun’s laboured breathing on the other side of the line, and she was afraid she was on the verge of a breakdown. She exited the establishment, Yerim in tow. “Now, tell me everything”.

“Like an hour ago I saw Yeojin had texted me, saying she was coming to meet me at the studio” Yeojin was the girl who was like a younger sister to Jungeun, Jinsoul recalled. “I thought it was weird because I hadn’t told her to come, I wasn’t even planning on going today, and I tried calling her to tell her but she didn’t pick up, so I came” Jungeun’s voice made it obvious she was on the verge of tears, and Jinsoul started walking a bit faster, Yerim struggling to keep up with her while trying to hear the other side of the conversation. “But when I got to the building I didn’t see her, so I went to the studio I usually practice in. There was a portal, Jinsoul!!! A. Fucking. Portal. In the middle of the room”.

“A portal? Like the one I opened on the first day?” As if on cue, the ground beneath their feet shook. Jinsoul felt her stomach drop, and judging by Yerim’s face, she was feeling as sick as she was. Both of them ran to the building. The world became stable once more.

“Yes! Right there. But it didn’t show your lab, there’s a forest at the other side. And Yeojin went inside! I saw her disappear into it when I entered the room. I screamed at her to come back but she didn’t hear me” Jungeun’s voice broke, and the line was filled with sobs.

“Where are you now, Jungeun?? Did you follow her??” Jinsoul’s voice was ragged with the run, as she followed Yerim up the stairs.

“No-o, I thought I’d call you first” she sniffled.

Jinsoul nodded to herself. It was okay. Jungeun was fine. She could work with that. 

“Stay put, we don’t want you to get lost” she warned, as she finally step foot in the floor her lab was located at. Yerim was nowhere to be seen. “Is the door still open?”

“Yes, it is. Why?”

“Because _we_ didn’t open it” she grunted, as she ran into her lab. She skidded to a stop right beside Yerim, who was already working on the computer. There was no portal in there.

“Then who did it!? No, I don’t care about that. Can you bring her back??”

“We’re on it” she turned on the speaker, and dropped the phone by her side.

“I can try to stabilise the door so it won’t close before we want it to” Yerim muttered, glancing sideways at Jinsoul. She got the message. The only way they could stabilise the portal was if it had been opened using their equipment. She drew her lips into a thin line.

“I’ll try and see if I can get the coordinates of the place it leads to” she answered, getting a short nod in response. She didn’t say the rest of the sentence aloud, not wanting Jungeun to hear it. They couldn’t risk maintaining it open. They would tell Jungeun the coordinates before they closed the portals for good. That way, she’s at least know where to look. 

The tremor that went through the Earth was so violent it threw them both to the ground. Jinsoul tried to sit up using the table as support, but she could barely hang on to it. Yerim had somehow wrapped her arms around the computers, trying to stop them from falling. It seemed like it was never going to end, the shaking so intense Jinsoul feared for them both. Somewhere in the background, she could hear Jungeun’s muffled screams, but she was to scared to bother looking for the phone. Her eyes remained squeezed shut until the ground finally stopped moving. She carefully opened her eyes.

“What was that?” Jungeun spoke in a tiny voice, the fear leaking from it.

“An earthquake” Yerim answered. “Because the longer we have the portals opened, the more damage our universes sustain”.

Jinsoul scrambled up, her legs still shaking, and Yerim did the same, carefully disentangling herself from the computers. They resumed their work, faster than before, ignoring the questions Jungeun shot at them. 

“The portal is stable”. Jinsoul nodded. It was on her then.

“But those earthquakes were so strong, Jinsoul. And there were two. It doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t be this bad yet”.

“We’ve never seen anything like this, Yerim. Who knows how it’s supposed to be. Got it!” she cried out, once she had the coordinates.

“What does that mean?” Jungeun asked. “What does it mean??” she repeated louder when they failed to answer her. Jungeun grabbed the phone from where it had fallen.

“It means we know where she is”.

“And the portal is stable, right?”

“Yes”, Jinsoul breathed. She frowned. “Wait? Why?” Jungeun didn’t answer, and Jinsoul felt her blood freeze in her veins“Jungeun, don’t”.

The answer was so quiet she almost didn’t hear it.

“I have to. I know you’re going to close the portals for good. You just said it’s damaging both our universes. But you’re not letting my sister get lost” there was steel in her voice. “If she’s lost, I’ll be lost with her”.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” she saw Yerim still beside her and she threw herself at the computer but she knew it was pointless. She could almost see the scene unfurling: Jungeun facing the portal, eyes hard, blonde hair falling around her head like a halo.

“Haseul will die of sorrow if she loses Yeojin”.

A step towards the portal. Jinsoul’s fingers racing over the keyboard, stumbling on each other. 

“We’d all die for her”. 

Another step, bringing her a breath’s distance to the door. Jinsoul pressing the wrong key, a small mistake that cost so much time. 

“I’ll be fine, Jinsoul. I’m always fine”

The final words, whispered sweetly, but that taste bitter with goodbye. One last step, fingers hovering over the one command that’s left. As Jinsoul races to press it, the line goes dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it for this week! What did you think about it? I hope you enjoyed it ^^  
> If everything goes according to plan, next week this fic will come to an end. It might not be on Friday because I have an exam on Monday and a pretty busy weekend before me but I'll try and have it all ready for Friday! (I really hope I don't disappoint)  
> And one last important thing: I was considering the idea of posting a spin off for this fic, which would hopefully shed some light on what's going on here. It would most likely be shorter than Living in different nations and I would really like to know if you'd be interested in reading it, so please do tell!  
> I hope you all have a nice week, and see you (hopefully) next Friday!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at the end! I really hope it won't disappoint, but we shall see. This is the longest chapter to date, and it took me a while to finish it, but I think it ended up being pretty nice.   
> As you can see, this fic has now turned into the first installment of a two-part series (the seconds and final part will hopefully be uploaded next week)! And I just wanted to thank you all for the support, it means the world to me <33†a

Everything was silent, so silent Jinsoul could hear her blood rushing through her veins. 

One heartbeat. 

Breath in. 

Two heartbeats. 

Breath out. 

It all came crushing down.

Jungeun had gone through that portal. She had actually stepped through it to follow her friend and so she would be lost who knew where. Maybe she’d be lost forever, and yet she didn’t hesitate. She shouldn’t be surprised. Had she been in Jungeun’s place, she would have done the same. She was going to do the same.

Everything was blurry but the computer in front of her. Her hands flew over the keyboard, and she was blind and deaf to her surroundings. She didn’t notice Yerim moving until she grabbed her wrists, in a vice-like grip. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, abruptly turning her head in her friend’s direction.

“What are _you_ doing?” she hissed, still firmly holding Jinsoul’s hands in place. “We should be closing the doors, not opening _another one_ ”.

“I have to go after her!”

“She can find her way on her own!”

“And if she doesn’t?” she screamed. “What if she doesn’t and she’s lost who knows where? I can’t leave her there, Yerim, I can’t” her voice faltered.

“And I can’t lose you, Jinsoul” was the hushed response. 

“Then help me, because I’m going there to get her” Jinsoul said, looking straight into the other’s eyes. She could see the conflict there, the need to protect everyone battling with the need to help her friend. Her heart broke a little with the knowledge that it was her whom had put her friend through that dilemma, but she stood her ground, until Yerim lowered her eyes and she knew she had won.

“How are you going to do it?” Yerim released her wrists, letting her own hands fall limp beside her body.

“I’m going to open another door here, and link it to the one in Jungeun’s side. Ours will lead me to the same place the other does and when we close this one…”

“We close both at the same time” Yerim completed the sentence. She kept quiet for a moment, before nodding to herself and grabbing Jinsoul’s phone, unlocking it.

“What are you doing with my phone?”

Yerim didn’t look away from what she was doing.

“I’m trying to connect it to the computer, so that you can find your way back to the portal, and you don’t get lost”. After fumbling with it for a couple more minutes, she handed it back to Jinsoul. “Done”.

“I’m finished too. Hopefully this will work”.

Yerim nodded, and Jinsoul pressed the last commands, stepping back as soon as she did, pocketing both her phones. Before them, the door opened. With a deep breath, Jinsoul went towards it.

“Are you sure you want to do this? There’s something fishy with this coordinates” there was concern, and fear, in Yerim’s voice, and that made Jinsoul stop dead in her tracks to look at her.

“I have to, Yerim” she said, an unspoken plea in her voice. Yerim shook her head, blinking repeatedly, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

“Be back as soon as you can. I don’t know how long this will last and I don’t want to close this if you aren’t here”.

Unspoken words hung between them, and Jinsoul nodded weakly, throwing Yerim a smile, silently reassuring her that she understood, and wouldn’t hold her decision against her. She knew she might not come back. Then, she stepped through the portal.

She felt considerably less dizzy than the first time she had gone through it, but she still had to lean on a tree for support. She stayed there, eyes closed, breathing slowly, for maybe a couple seconds at most, until she felt like she wouldn’t fall over. When she opened her eyes, she saw she was in the middle of a forest, and a dark one, for that matter. The sunlight creeped between the canopy of leaves, barely reaching the ground, and leaving it in a gloomy atmosphere. The only light Jinsoul could see was the soft glow that came from the portals, nowhere near enough to dispel the darkness.

Pushing herself of the tree, she looked around. There wasn’t really much to see, only trees in every direction, so close together there was barely no space between them. She shuddered. Something in that forest set her on edge. It looked like any other forest, but something was off, even if she couldn’t pinpoint it. She shook off the felling, scanning her surroundings, as her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light. 

The floor was covered with falling leaves, the roots sticking out of the surface. The forest was silent, so silent, like there were no animals, or like they were being purposefully quiet. Nothing seemed to disturb the stale peace of the forest, not even Jinsoul’s footsteps as she made her way through the trees, the sound muffled by the soft earth and the decaying leaves. The forest was so devoid of noise, she almost jumped out of her own skin when she heard the scream.

She turned around, searching frantically for the source. To her left, right in front of the portals, she saw what looked like a flash of blonde hair, and without a second thought, she ran after it. 

Running between the cluster of trees proved itself to be a challenge. The scarce light wasn’t enough to clearly see the ground, so Jinsoul had to run slower than she wanted to, least she fell and lost what she hoped was Jungeun. However, said girl was slower than Jinsoul was, so the distance between them was decreasing steadily, enough for the girl to hear the noise Jinsoul was making while running through the trees, which made her look back. Her face lit up in recognition, slowing down, still not stopping, but it was what Jinsoul needed to finally catch up with her. 

“What are you doing here?”

Jungeun sounded surprised, but the concern in her eyes and voice was obvious, not even stopping to properly look at Jinsoul, and instead looking frantically around her, searching for something.

“Looking for you. We have to go” slightly out of breath, Jinsoul tried to pull Jungeun towards the portals but she shook of her hand, refusing to go back.

“Not until I find Yeojin”, Jungeun continued walking, ducking to get under a tree branch. Jinsoul followed her.

“You don’t have to” as soon as the words had left her mouth, she regretted them, wishing for them to get back, to never leave her lips, but Jungeun didn’t even look back.

“If I don’t do it, who will? You?” even if there was no bite in her words, Jinsoul couldn’t help but flinch. “She’s like my sister, and now she’s lost in a fucking forest. I’m not staying back. She deserves better. Besides, even if you went to get her, she wouldn’t go with you. She’s seen too much of how cruel people can be, she won’t believe someone she doesn’t know”.

Jungeun hopped over a raised root, Jinsoul trailing behind her.

“What if she goes back while we’re here looking for her?”

“Firstly, _you_ don’t have to be here. Secondly, she won’t, she’s too curious for her own good, she’s here somewhere”.

“I’m not leaving you here when our universes may collapse any second. And she could be literally anywhere, it’s a forest, it’s not like it has directions or clear paths” she said, as she moved the lower branches out of her way.

“I think I saw her running in this direction. And what are you going to here do when the universes collapse, huh?”

“I can find our way back and… Wait. What’s that?”

Grabbing Jungeun’s wrist, she forced her to stop, and pointed somewhere a little to their left. Nothing happened. She was about to speak, when there was sudden movement, something white moving right in front of them. It only lasted a moment before it disappeared again. It could have been anything. But it was enough to sprung Jungeun into action, running like crazy towards it, shouting at the top of her lungs.

“Yeojin!! Wait!!”

Surprised by the speed with which Jungeun had moved, it took Jinsoul a moment to rush behind her. The low branches hit her face when she wasn’t fast enough to move them out of the way, and she almost feel a couple times, slipping on the traitorous leaves. Jungeun, however, seemed unfazed by it, worry and hope fueling her movements, so Jinsoul gritted her teeth, willing herself to run faster.

Jungeun ran in front of her, jumping over the roots, dodging the trees with a grace that was foreign to Jinsoul. A sense of déjà vu washed over her: she felt like she had been there before, running after Jungeun, chasing her between trees in a forest that was brighter, happier, less dull and silent than it was that day. Turning her head, she could almost see a flash of pink hair and white clothes running beside her, Yerim’s laugh ringing in her ears, surrounding her. All of that was overcome by sudden cold, the knowledge that something had gone wrong, her heart breaking into twelve tiny pieces. It only lasted for a moment, before Jinsoul snapped out of it, just in time to avoid crashing into a tree, but it was enough to knock the air out of her lungs, leaving a churning feeling in her stomach.

Alien to Jinsoul’s inner turmoil, Jungeun had continued to run, catching up with the figure she was chasing. By the time Jinsoul reached her, she had another girl, Yeojin, probably, engulfed in her arms. She only took a step back to squish her face between her hands, inspecting her in look for injuries, and when she verified she was safe and sound, she covered her face with kisses, ignoring the protests coming from the tiny girl.

“What were you thinking?” Jungeun whispered, her chin perched on top of Yeojin’s head.

Yeojin wiggled her way out of Jungeun’s embrace. Her eyes met Jinsoul’s for a fleeting moment, before moving back to Jungeun. Jinsoul didn’t think Yeojin had been too impressed by her.

“I wanted to see where I was. And I wanted to get to the castle”.

Jungeun’s brows shot up, and their gazes collided over Yeojin’s head, both absolutely surprised.Jungeun placed her hands on Yeojin’s shoulder, pushing her slightly back, looking down into her eyes.

“What castle?”

Yeojin turned to her right, pointing with her chin. Jinsoul followed the direction with her eyes, and her breath hitched: somehow they hadn’t noticed they were almost at the edge of the forest, the latter turning itself from an impenetrable force to a beautiful garden, perfect in it’s details, green, bright, full of life. At the end of it, just like Yeojin said, there was a castle. Made of pale stone, it was massive and impressive, and it tugged something in Jinsoul’s memory. She could understand the pull Yeojin had felt towards it, she could almost feel it herself, but there was something in that castle that made her want to turn away and never come back, and it was as strong as the attraction she felt to it. 

One look at Jungeun was enough to know she felt as torn as herself, but there was also the need to protect Yeojin and keep her from danger, that overcame whichever curiosity she was feeling. 

“Yeojin, we’ve got to go”.

The girl shot her an indignant look.

“No! What are you talking about?” her voice rose as she spoke, reaching a tone that was almost deafening.

“We have to go. Now, Yeojin”, she accompanied her words with a pull on Yeojin’s arm.

“We’ll come back some other time” the words escaped her lips before she could process them. She could feel Jungeun’s gaze on her, but she ignored it, focusing on Yeojin, who looked at her with a piercing look. Yeojin nodded slowly, and Jinsoul breathed in slowly, feeling herself relax when Yeojin believed her words, her lies.

No more words were needed. Jinsoul opened her phone, and after looking at the small dots that signaled their position and the portal’s position, she pointed the way. Jungeun was first, followed by Yeojin, and then Jinsoul, who lingered there for a moment. She turned around, taking in the castle. She was about to leave when movement caught her attention: something had moved in the central balcony. Squinting at it, she thought she could make out a person, with long dark hair, but the distance was far too great to safely identify it, and the more she looked, the less sure she felt of what she saw. When she heard Jungeun calling for her, she moved from where she was rooted to the floor.

It took them considerably less time to get back to the portals than it had taken them to find Yeojin, and Jinsoul hoped there was still enough time to permanently close the portals without any further damage. At least there hadn’t been any earthquakes, which had to be a good sign. Hopefully.

When they reached the place where the portals were, Jungeun relaxed visibly, smiling for the first time since Jinsoul had found her. Softly, she ushered Yeojin to the one that lead to her studio, watching her cross it. Before she could follow her, Jinsoul grabbed her hand. Jungeun looked at her in confusion, lips parted. Jinsoul gave her the phone she had bought in her universe, softly placing it in her hand, and closing Jungeun’s fingers around it.

“I’m really sorry for all of this” she whispered, averting her eyes.

Jungeun shook her head.

“It wasn’t your fault. You were working, you didn’t know this would happen. It wasn’t your fault, Jinsoul, or Yerim’s”.

A feather-like touch against her cheek had her looking up at Jungeun, who was smiling softly at her. Before she could react, Jungeun threw her arms around Jinsoul’s neck, pulling her into a hug. It sank in then that it was the first time they had touched each other. It had been the first time they had even seen each other in person. Even if it felt like they had known each other forever, it was the first time they had interacted without being in completely different places. And it would be the last one. So Jinsoul let the hug envelop her, burying her head in the crook of Jungeun’s neck, relishing in the warmth that came from her, even if it ended way too soon. It was her the one who broke the hug, stepping away from Jungeun.

“We need to go now. We don’t know how much longer this will hold. We are going to close the portals, forever. Tampering with the universe wasn’t a good idea” she huffed, in a poor attempt at hiding her pain and sadness, that she doubted had fooled Jungeun. “You’ve got to take the phone, because we don’t know if having an object from another universe is going to affect them, and it’s better if we don’t find out”.

“Is it that bad?”

“It’s… It’s worse…” she confessed, feeling the lump in her throat. “One of our universes is going to take the others’ place and we don’t know how it will affect either of them but I guess… I guess the one that ‘wins’ will survive and the other will disappear”.

“Which one’s winning?” for a split second, Jinsoul considered ignoring the question, acting like she hadn’t heard it, but she couldn’t. She owed Jungeun at least that.

“We don’t know but…” she looked up, and Jungeun’s clear eyes propelled her to continue talking, even if it hurt. “I think it might be mine”, the words bumped into each other as she spoke, faster and faster, until the sentence turned into one long word, “we didn’t know at first but that portal to this place might have damaged yours’ further, I’m so sorry” her voice had turned into a whisper, shame and remorse coiling in her stomach.

“Does this mean we might die?”

She couldn’t get her words out, so Jinsoul silently nodded. Jungeun’s eyes shimmered with tears and something Jinsoul would have called affection, had she not know how unlikely that was.

“So this is goodbye?”

“This is goodbye” she said, smiling weakly.

Nodding to herself, Jungeun bit her lip. Stepping forward, she leaned in, kissing Jinsoul’s cheek for a second, barely enough time for her to register it. Jinsoul blinked, surprised, her face heating up, but by the time she had recovered, Jungeun had moved back, and was standing next to the portal. With a last smile and a wave of the hand that wasn’t holding the phone, she went through it. Jinsoul watched her disappear, and drag Yeojin away from the studio, before heading to her own portal. With a glance over her shoulder, she gave that last step, and returned to Yerim.

As soon as she was back in their lab, Yerim pulled her out of the way, without giving her time to recover from the trip, and wordlessly, started pressing the keys that would close their universes to each other, at least for the time being. The portals flickered, and closed permanently. Or Jinsoul hoped it was both their portals, as she had no way of actually verifying that. The computers continued running, numbers and formula flashing in the screens, as Yerim backtracked to where Jinsoul was, staring at the computers with a frown. The buzzing and humming coming from the machines were reaching a new level.

“Jinsoul”.

Jinsoul ignored it, feeling some kind of numbness extending through her body.

“Jinsoul” her name, called with a little more vigour, snapped her from her daze.

“Yerim?”

“I know what was weird with those coordinates” that piqued up Jinsoul’s interest, who straightened herself. “I knew there was something odd with them but I couldn’t figure it out so I stared at them” the beeps from the computers were sounding stronger, “until it hit me”, the beeping was increasingly faster, almost turning into one continuous sound, “it’s because they aren’t from this universe” Jinsoul looked at Yerim, “or from Jungeun’s” they were both oblivious to their surroundings, “they were from another, a completely different one”.

There was a loud bang and the bitter smell of smoke, and both of them shouted, covering her faces, turning away from the sound. When the explosions didn’t stop, but instead seemed to get bigger and more constant, Jinsoul pushed Yerim towards the door, and they both abandoned the lab. It took the computers over half an hour until they went silent, and they still waited ten more minutes for good measure before opening the door and heading back in. The lab was filled with black smoke, that made them cough so much their eyes watered. Covering their faces with their clothes, they hurried to open the windows, trying to ventilate the room. By the time they were able to see and breath somewhat normally, they realised their equipment was absolutely destroyed. Closing several doors to another universe, to _two_ universes,at the same time, had probably been too much for it to handle, effectively blowing up. Jinsoul was glad there hadn’t been a much bigger explosion, but it was obvious their work had found an end right there, in a jumble of scorched metals.

She looked up at Yerim, her mouth twisting in a bitter smile.

“I guess it doesn’t matter where the coordinates lead to, right? It’s not like we can go back there, even if we wanted to”.

Dragging her body to the nearest wall, she let herself fall to the floor. Yerim followed her shortly after. Jinsoul knew there were reasons for her to be happy: they hadn’t died, it seemed like the universes would survive, she and Yerim had done they impossible. It shouldn’t be as important that she wouldn’t be able to see Jungeun ever again, or that the machine was broken without repair. But it was. And maybe all it would take was a good night sleep for her to get over it, set her priorities straight again. Maybe they would be able to come up with a solution to their problem. Maybe the portals would be opened again sometime, and she would be able to meet Jungeun once again, but those possible futures were too far away to serve as any consolation right then.

And so, Jinsoul let the numbness and sadness take over, the pain and remorse so bad, they left marks so deep nothing would erase them, and she wept, silent tears streaming down her cheeks without an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! As always, if something was unclear or anything, just leave me a comment and I'll try my best to explain it!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update today! It was half because I wanted to end it and half because I felt bad if I kept you all waiting one more week for this. You'll see what I mean when you've read it xD

It was 6 a.m. when the incessant ringing of her phone woke Jinsoul up. Blindly, she looked for it and groaned as she turned it off, unwilling to leave the warm cocoon her duvet had formed, but she knew if she didn’t get up quickly, she’d be late to work. She rubbed her eyes and noticed her damp cheeks. The pillow was soaked as well, like she had cried herself to sleep, but she couldn’t remember that happening. She had some inkling it wasn’t the first time it had happened, waking up to tear stained cheeks and a light headache, even if she had no idea how that had happened. Unwilling to give it anymore thought, she put it down to some bad dream.

Sighing, she pushed the duvet away in order to get ready for yet another day at work. It was in moments like this in which she really wished she was rich and unbothered, but she wasn’t, so she better get going if she ever wanted to have as much money as she dreamt of. Like every other day, she made her bed, got dressed and went to the kitchen to have breakfast, heading straight for the coffee machine, for her first coffee cup of the day. She ate her food while scrolling through her Twitter and Instagram, absentmindedly giving likes to the pictures that popped up. 

She washed the dishes, brushed her teeth and by 6:45 a.m. she was heading towards her car. She watched as the streets slowly filled with people, heading to work or school, some heading back to their homes, as she sung along to _Youngblood_. When _More_ started to play, she turned it up, singing at the top of her lungs, feeling like the song was speaking directly to her. In thirty minutes she had reached her working place, and was headed to her lab.

“Good morning!”, she shouted, knowing her coworker was somewhere in the room.

“Hi, Jinsoul” was the muffled response, coming from the bathroom located at the right side of the room. “They brought something in for you”.

“Huh?”

Yerim came out from the bathroom, her long brown hair floating behind her, as Jinsoul hung her coat on the rack, and motioned towards the table Jinsoul had her back to. On top of it sat an exuberant bouquet of roses. She turned towards Yerim, her mouth hanging.

“Who brought them?”

Her friend shrugged.

“No idea. They were already here when I arrived”.

Jinsoul furrowed her brows.

“How is that even possible? You are always the first to arrive”.

“Maybe they live even further away than me and have to take an even earlier bus. I don’t know. Now go and see if it has a card or something, let’s see who send them”.

Yerim nudged her forward gently, and Jinsoul carefully looked for some type of card, which she found a few moments later, while Yerim rested her chin on her shoulder, her arms snaking around Jinsoul’s middle. She opened the envelope and took out a slip of paper, creamy and thick, clearly of high quality.

_I know it seems like this week never ends, that it constantly repeats itself and that you’re walking in circles, but know that what you do is important. You are important. I’ll always be here for you. Till the last moment, I’ll stay right by your side. We can’t be separated xO_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for this fic. I always intended on ending it like this, and I thought of maybe writing a spin-off, which is now going to be written for sure because I feel bad for those of you who wanted a happy ending and were given this... So I will be writing a spin-off, that will hopefully explain some of the things that happened, as it will be centered on someone we haven't really seen... It will be shorter than this fic, if everything goes according to plan and hopefully it will start next week, but I can't say it for sure because I'm soon starting uni (aka on Monday, rip me).  
> Regarding Living in different nations, I hope you enjoyed it and that the ending wasn't too underwhelming, albeit I understand if it was... Thank you to all of you who read it, I'm really grateful for your support on this my first long fic (I now it's barely 20k but it's the most I've ever written in English), it meant the world to me <3 And if there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask!  
> See you next time with a new story ;)
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


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